Dessert

January 06, 2016

I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas and a great start to the New Year. We had a relaxing Christmas and then took a small trip for New Years.

We spent time in one of our favorite places, Breckenridge. We snowshoed and enjoyed the beauty around us. We headed to Manitou Springs to ring in 2016. I treasure time with my family and I am looking forward to what this year brings us.

When I was a child, we lived in a place that did not get much snow. It was always our tradition to make fudge whenever it did snow. My dad would make my grandpa's fudge recipe, which was the perfect fudge - rich, velvety and very chocolatey.

The fudge I made today was so good, and my daughter loved it. The ingredients are very different from when I was a child, and I feel great that I can re-create a childhood memory for my own daughter with ingredients that work for us now.

I hope you try it and enjoy it with your loved ones.

Fudge (no dairy, no soy, paleo-friendly)

serves 4

Ingredients:

1 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup coconut cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)

1 ripe avocado

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

4 tablespoons maple syrup

dash of sea salt

Directions:

In a double broiler, melt the coconut oil, coconut cream and dark chocolate chips. Once melted, add to a food processor with the avocado, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, maple syrup and dash of sea salt. Process ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Pour into a greased 8x8 glass baking dish. Refrigerate for a few hours until well set, then slice into squares and enjoy!

October 01, 2015

This pie was such a hit that I was only able to snap one quick photo of it. Everyone loved it!

S'mores pie is perfect for Summer or Autumn. I think it would make a great treat for a Halloween party.

The dandies marshmallows (vegan) work really well and are very tasty. We took them camping this year and roasted them by the fire on many occasions.

On our trip to the Royal Gorge; we brought along dandies marshmallows, enjoy life chocolate and gluten-free ice cream cones to make a fun treat by the fire.

I'm sure I'll get asked what we made so here's a quick explanation: Stuff the ice cream cones with marshmallows and chocolate, then wrap them individually in foil. Carefully place them by the fire and let roast for a few minutes. You'll have an ooey gooey treat :)

I buy my dandies marshmallows and enjoy life chocolate chips from Thrive Market.

Okay back to the s'mores pie! Here is how I made it. Let me know if you try it :)

S'mores Pie (vegan, nut-free, gluten-free)

Crust ingredients:

1 8 ounce package of gluten-free graham crackers

1 tablespoon organic earth balance (could sub coconut oil)

7 tablespoons coconut oil

marshmallow layer ingredients:

1 10 ounce package of vegan mini marshmallows (we use dandies)

2 tablespoons softened organic earth balance

chocolate pie layer:

1 10 ounce package of enjoy life chocolate chips

1 package of organic mori-nu silken tofu extra firm

2 tablespoons coconut oil

1/2 cup coconut milk

Directions:

First make the graham cracker crust by blending the ingredients in a food processor. Add to a lightly greased pie dish and chill in the refrigerator.

Prepare a double broiler to melt the marshmallows for the s'mores layer. Melt marshmallows with earth balance, stirring as you go. Add to to the pie crust and let sit while you make the chocolate pie layer.

In a double broiler, melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil and coconut milk together.

September 17, 2015

This cake is essentially my pumpkin spice cake recipe, which can be found here. Except in boxed form! I spotted a gluten free non-gmo pumpkin cake mix at the store a while back. I decided to buy it just for a time when maybe I needed to make something quickly. Well that time came sooner than later!

My daughter needed a couple of treats to bring to her homeschool program this week since there are a few birthday celebrations. I decided to go ahead and try out the mix I bought: Sun Flour Mills Pumpkin Cake Mix.

I have to say, this is probably the first box mix that I was pleased with. Granted, I've only ever tried maybe three or four mixes.

I would definitely buy it again to have on hand for those moments when you need something quick.

So here's what I did:

I followed the directions on the box and combined all the ingredients (including 3 organic eggs) and I used an electric hand mixer to blend everything well. One thing I did add extra was more pumpkin spice (by Spicely) because we like a lot of spice.

This makes a lot of cake! My daughter wanted cupcakes, because who doesn't? I only have one cupcake pan that makes 12 cupcakes. This mix states it makes 32 cupcakes. So I used a round cake pan for the rest of the batter.

*One thing to note about this mixis that it rises pretty high. My cupcakes almost overflowed, which resulted in some crispy edges that my daughter really enjoyed.

August 29, 2015

My husband loves pie and I love to make pie! It's fun and usually quite simple and quick.

My go-to pie recipe base is avocado because it is easy and makes it very creamy. You can't taste the avocado. But since you can't always get good avocados, I decided to try and make a pie without them.

This pie was more firm and much richer, like a large chocolate truffle!

May 18, 2015

These creamy popsicles were a big hit in my house! Even though it's not really summer here at all. It's pretty much been raining for a couple months. But, my daughter loves popsicles and will eat them any time of the year.

Strawberries are in season so this is a great recipe to make. All you need is strawberries, maple syrup and coconut milk! I used my Vitamix but you could use any blender.

Ingredients:

1 can of organic full fat coconut milk

1/4 cup maple syrup

8 big organic strawberries - plus extra to cut into chunks

Directions:

Add coconut milk, maple syrup and strawberries to blender. Blend until well mixed.

Pour into your favorite popsicle molds and add some strawberry chunks for extra flavor and fun.

Freeze overnight.

Sophie said she really liked that I put strawberry chunks in the popsicles :)

April 08, 2015

Sophie isn't allergic to strawberries anymore so I knew I had to make a strawberry pudding! My family loved this pudding and it's super easy to make. It didn't last long. Organic strawberries are starting to come into the stores at a great price so we will have to come up with a strawberry popsicle recipe soon too.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup dates

3 cup strawberries

2 small avocados

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon coconut oil

3 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons coconut cream

Directions:

Soak the dates in hot water until soft and then discard the water.

Add all ingredients to the food processor and blend until smooth and creamy!

Refrigerate until the pudding is cool and serve with strawberry slices :)

September 16, 2014

Last Summer we made fruit leather and we are at it again! Fruit leather is simple to make and super fun / easy for kids to help. Sophie loves making fruit leather!

This time we made apple fruit leather with local organic apples. We made one batch with apple and one batch with apple and banana. Sophie prefers the addition of the banana.

There are a couple of ways to make fruit leather, including using your oven. That's not what I do though. We have an excalibur dehydrator. This keeps the oven free for other things and also doesn't heat up the house.

You can use pretty much any type of fruit you want. We've made peach leather and plum leather. I think blueberry fruit leather would be good too, we might have to try that next.

So here's how we do it. We blend fruit with a little lemon juice (helps the fruit not brown) and then spread it onto our dehydrator sheets. We turn our dehydrator on about 105 degrees fahreinheit and it takes about 10 hours. You know when the fruit leather is done because it easily peels up off the sheets and doesn't stick.

Another easy treat to make with your dehydrator is banana chips. Sophie also enjoys helping make those! I think making fruit leather is the perfect activity to transition from Summer to Autumn.

August 18, 2014

Have you heard of Jolly Llama Popsicles? They are gluten-free, dairy-free and free of peanuts and tree nuts. We love them! They are also non-gmo!

Sophie went to horse camp this year and when it was really hot out, the counslers handed out popsicles to the kids. We bought Jolly Llama popsicles so that she could also have a popsicle at the end of the day!

They are creamy and taste great. Sophie's two favorite flavors are pineapple coconut and mango.